Lightning results

A very strong turnout of 28 Horsham players contested the annual Lightning tournament last week, following the junior club's own Lightning earlier in the evening.

First up were the juniors, many of them experiencing 10-second buzzer chess for the very first time. As ever with lightning chess there were blunders galore but part of the fun is the unpredictability! Everybody scored some points which was great, the overall winner being Zevon with 4.5/5, a good warmup for him as he also took part in the adult competition. Well done to everyone who took part.

With 28 players for the main event, we split into three seeded groups. The winner of each would qualify for a three way all-play-all final. The group scores were as follows:

Group A:
Mike Forster - 8/9 (qualifier)
James Mansson - 6.5/9 (group runner-up)
Roy Page - 6/9
John Marshall - 5/9
Paul Taylor & Chris Heath - 4.5/9
Richard Moorhouse - 4/9
Zevon Rustom & Richard Barrowclough - 2.5/9
Fiore Pantone - 1.5/9

Group B:
Dix Roberts - 7/8 (qualifier on tiebreak)
Ian Comley - 7/8 (group runner-up)
Matthew Forster & John Cannon - 5/8
Nick Warren - 4.5/8
Anthony Higgs - 4/8
Oliver Thorne - 2.5/8
Roger Waddingham - 1/8
David Gray - 0/8

Group C:
Brian Donnelly - 7.5/8 (qualifier)
Alex Freeland - 7/8 (group runner-up)
Mick Harris - 5.5/8
Peter Harbott & Phil Stimpson - 5/8
Lucy Bennet-Stevens - 3/8
Alex McMillan - 2/8
Julie Denning - 1/8
Alan Norton - 0/8

Mike, Dix and Brian therefore qualified and the final kicked off. In the first game Dix lost to Mike, and in the second game also lost to Brian, placing Dix in third overall. Mike and Brian battled it out for first, and a close game ended when Mike overlooked a deadly skewer winning decisive material for Brian.

Final:
Roberts 0-1 Forster
Donnelly 1-0 Roberts
Forster 0-1 Donnelly

1st - Brian Donnelly
2nd - Mike Forster
3rd - Dix Roberts

Brian had therefore won the tournament whilst only conceding a single draw, a fantastic result and congratulations to him. Honourable mentions for some other players - Mick scored 5.5 in his group, including taking the only half point from Brian and winning probably the longest lightning game I think I've ever seen against Peter! Richard B also finished his group strongly taking 2.5/3 from his last games after starting with a run of losses, a great recovery. Also the evergreen John Cannon who was in pole position for quite a while in Group B.

Well done to all who took part and we look forward to more 10-second carnage next year...